Ex-BJD leader dubs Odisha CM a champion liar

BJP leader and former minister Ramakrushna Patnaik on Wednesday took a swipe at the Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik while dubbing him as a champion liar.

“Nobody in the whole universe can beat Naveen Patnaik in telling lies,” Patnaik told newsmen at the party state headquarters here.

Former BJD leader and Finance Minister turned BJP leader Ramakrushna Patnaik blasted Odisha Government left, right and centre over its non performance and went on to say “Nobody in the whole universe can beat Naveen Patnaik in telling lies,” in a press conference held at BJP state headquarters yesterday.

His remarks bear significance as he was a representative from Ganjam, the same District Naveen contests from and was considered a very close ally of Naveen.

“The state government has failed in every aspect. There is corruption everywhere. Though the Centre has given more fiscal freedom to the state to augment its revenue and generate employment opportunities, the state government only does politics in the name of Central negligence,” said the former BJD leader and Finance minister.

Pointing out the failure of the state government in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Patnaik said though the state government, in its annual budget this year has given top priority to agriculture, it has not done anything for the 60 lakh tribals who do not have any land of their own.

The government has presented the special Agriculture budget, but has not ensured timely procurement of paddy from the farmers, he pointed out.

While the MGNREGA assures to provide 100 days of employment, the state government has managed to provide 37 days of employment in 2007-08, 40 days in 2009-10, 53 days in 2010-11, 33 days in 2011-12 and 41 days in 2013-14.

“This apart, the government has promised to facilitate irrigation to 10 lakh hectares of land in the next five years while in the last five years, it could manage to irrigate only 66,160 hectares as against the target of 1,65,126 hectares of land,” he noted.

While 80 percent of the people don’t have access to toilets, 47.5 percent don’t have access to clean drinking water. There is only one doctor for 10,000 people in the state while the national average is five doctors for 10,000 people.
Patnaik also criticized the ‘Potato Mission’ of the state government.